Archive for the ‘Wait For The Ricochet’ Category

Just to let people know that there will be a German edition of the Deep Purple book Wait For The Ricochet later this year. Published by Hannibal, it will look very similar to the original, with the same illustrations and format. If anyone is interested, the title can be pre-ordered already from the publisher’s own site. Hard to believe but the album is 48 years old this very month, and was of course a massive seller in Germany where it topped their album charts for weeks. If you do not have this book yet, the English edition is back in stock through the publisher’s own shop. And their follow-up devoted to Machine Head and titled Fire In The Sky is now not far away.

The publishers would like to thank Lutz and Andreas for their help in making this German edition possible.

What were you doing on June 5th forty-seven years ago? Me I was probably trying to dodge flying board rubbers in double english (the teacher had this habit of lobbing them at high velocity in the vague direction of anyone he thought wasn’t paying attention…)
Some however were lucky enough to be in town picking up Deep Purple In Rock, released that day (or perhaps the single Black Night, issued at the same time.)
I was reminded of this only because the reprint of the book Deep Purple – Wait For The Ricochet is at last back in stock at the publishers. Everyone who pre-ordered the reprint has had their copy shipped, but if you missed it first time round, now is your chance (but don’t dilly dally as a third of the stock has apparently shipped already.)

The book basically covers the entire build up from the first days of Mk 2 through the recording sessions for the first Mk 2 studio album and then the In Rock tour, an intense two year period, researched in remarkable detail, chock full of photos and memorabilia. From Jon Lord’s mum defending her lad in the Melody Maker, to Roger Glover’s hints for dying crushed velvet trousers green. From the location of the gig where Gillan was auditioned, to Ritchie shopping for strobe lights. From the In Rock engineer’s matter of fact description of Ritchie recording the guitar solo for Child In Time, to Ian Gillan explaining the need for tight trousers to sing the vocals, it’s all here. What’s more there is a discount on the retail price which is extended for the next two weeks if you order through the publisher’s shop. The links below will give you more information and page visuals.
And if you already have the book, celebrate like I am by playing a cut or two off the album later today (to get Liar Liar out of your brain if nothing else!).

Always a good start-back office chore is a careful sweep through the in-tray, which had crept up to 450+ emails over the winter break. And it does help bring things into focus.
Of course the music scene has rightly been mourning the death of Lemmy, one of rock’s great characters apparently according to the TV. I suppose that’s because most of the mainstream press didn’t really understand his music or playing ability. I still get shivers down my spine recalling that first eponymous Motorhead 12″ single on Chiswick Records which I bought close to release date back in 1977.

Lemmy auditioning on nose jug for the Gillan band.

Somehow I never did get the see them live in those early days (and they did tour with Purple as recently as 2007), but had been a big Hawkwind fan and met Lemmy at one of those weird all night rock events at the Queens Hall in Leeds. I’ve no idea how but we ended up being allowed into the hospitality room for the concert performers and Lemmy conned a nice button badge off my brother’s jacket. All he can recall was being sat by the side of the stage watching the show when a naked American woman came over and sat beside him. “Oh well, I’d best get on and wobble these around a little,” she explained after a while before we realised it was Stacia.
Funnily enough I was doing some vinyl sorting last week and checked my mint copy of their second album, signed by all the band… except Lemmy himself. Mind you he was busy telling us how much grass he’d smoked during the day so perhaps it didn’t seem quite the moment to get all fanboyish!
Lemmy was always respectful of what he called Deep Purple’s place as the originators of hard rock (and one of the first to use pyrotechnics, at the California Jam).
Closer to home, we also lost our mate Martin Lilleker who has been suffering from Alzheimer’s for several years. Martin was one of those irreplacable and unique cogs in the local community music scene; he wrote music columns for the local press for decades, ran a label for a time, helped manage and played live a bit too. In recent years he also documented the scene magnificently across two thick paperbacks on the history of Sheffield bands going back to the early 60s. I helped him with a few bits for these and when I bemoaned the poor design of the first book’s cover he let me have a free hand on book two and was brave enough to go ahead with an admittedly quite eye popping montage! It’s guys like Martin which make living in Sheffield just that little bit more enjoyable and we’ll miss him.
Looking forward it’s amazing how much enjoyment people get looking back, if the flurry of excitement about a new audience tape of Deep Purple from back in Feb 1972 at the Dagenham Roundhouse is to go by. The owner had got in touch with us in the lead-up to Christmas but seemed unable to wait to see if this could be done officially and pushed it out into the pirate networks instead. Amazing that new recordings can still emerge after forty plus years. It seems churlish to point out (as one expert did) that the cover photo is from the night before…!

Deep Purple, Spontaneous Combustion, Licensed Bar AND A CAR-PARK! We used to know how to have fun in the Seventies.

Talking of history, a few people have pointed me to a copy of Wait For The Ricochet currently selling on ebay. Or rather not selling, as the owner wants £1,001.86 for it. Since I went to have a peep (just to see if it was for real) ebay now keep asking me if I’d like “to take another look?”! I wouldn’t mind but the cheeky sod wants £2.75 postage as well… I added it as a watched item just to get his hopes up.
Hopefully this year we’ll get it back into print, but the priority right now is in finishing the follow-up, Fire In The Sky. And tracking down the current owner of the E-Type Jag Jon drove down to Montreux in. It’s all in the detail!
With the fun and games over the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame still ongoing, it’s good to see friends and fans of the late Cozy Powell have been able to organise things with far less aggro, and are putting up a blue plaque in the town of his birth, Cirencester. It’s very short notice, but if you’re free on January 7th then there is a public unveiling at the Corn Hall at 2.30pm with Brian May doing the honours. People like Bernie Marsden, Don Airey and Neil Murray will be there. It looks as if the long-mooted documentary on Cozy is also now in the works. The man himself would have been 70 next year.

As for ‘works’ we’re fairly confident the major labels are now about sorted when it comes to the Deep Purple classic era catalogue. The bizarre Universal LP box set (below) looks a real dog’s dinner, but I’m told better things are on the way with the return to catalogue of most of the regular albums (incredibly many have been off the shelves for some years now). There are also plans afoot with regards to other areas of the catalogue about which more as the year unfolds. I have had meetings with some of the people involved and it looks quite promising.

Switch off your G5, reissue of the year award 2016 is surely a given!

Some of you have also got the Rainbow gigs to look forward to. I guess we can’t really call it a reunion when only one member is coming back, but for everyone who missed out it looks as if more shows will follow in 2017. A souped up version of the first album is also due, though as the mutli-tracks are still lost there isn’t too much scope for content.
The first pics of the new Rainbow came through recently, reminding me of that excitement back in 75 when shots of the first group emerged and were being posted about by people to reproduce in fanzines etc. I shall not be hurrying to repeat the experience this time round!

Rainbow 2016, I recognise one of them…

As for Purple themselves it’s still good to listen to play bits and pieces off Now What so hopefully the band can again produce something of interest when they start recording in the next few weeks (will the first one into the studio hide Don’s ELP collection?).
I’ve got my plate full with design work to wrap up on three books this month, so I’d best fire up InDesign and get cracking. But before I do, here’s a few anniversaries coming up in 2016 to make everyone feel that little bit older!

The Deep Purple – Wait For The Ricochet book has now shipped. Last Friday was signing day. Stephen and Simon spent several hours slowly and carefully going through boxes of the book. Shipping out for discounted pre-ordered copies began on Saturday and has carried on ever since, with the last couple of boxes going to the post-office today. So hopefully everyone who ordered direct before publication date will have their signed copy any time, well ahead of it being available anywhere else (it may take a couple of extra days to reach some of the more distant destinations – apart from the UK the book has gone to places as far afield as America, Canada, Europe, Russia, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and China.) The book is also with the distributors so they will be getting it out to shops and other online outlets in due course.
A big thanks to everyone who pre-ordered as it helped give the project some extra assurance, and also to people who contributed in whatever way to the content. Any new orders will be dealt with next week.
I have to say Easy On The Eye books (check their site for more information and ordering details) and their printers have done a bang up job, the book looks and feels great, and visually it’s just so jammed packed with material it’s hard to know where to start. The DTB office now has the lingering smell of real litho ink (which took Simon back to his days working at a printers,) and he’s asked for the weekend off to recover having worked out that he’d shifted 200kgs of orders single-handed over the week.
Another little teaser of a competition for people; the early live shot of IG in Mk 2 above was taken at a venue in the north of England with Deep Purple as the support act. Can you tell us the link between this venue and another famous British rock band who made it famous? No prizes for this one, as the answer is actually in the book – if you look carefully… (and if anyone can source a set of those wonderful 50s lampshades for DTB towers do get in touch.)

Above: Deep Purple Now (looking like they’re busy nicking scrap metal!) and Then (1969 – yes I know we thought the In Rock sleeve pics were taken in 1970, but it increasingly looks like they were shot the previous year).

As is traditional at DTB during this time of year, we’re gazing into the Slaves & Masters sleeve to see what the next twelve months might hold for Deep Purple fans. Any anniversaries to celebrate? Well it’s the 45th Anniversary of Mk 2 for starters, which is quite something (especially for us oldies who were around at the time), and also the 40th of Burn. Still not feeling your age? Then try the 30th anniversary of the reunion on for size. More importantly for the band, it will be 20 years since Steve Morse joined Deep Purple – his first gig with them being in November 1994 (though it was a little later that the UK first got to see the band). Time is all we have, as IG put it on the last album. Will they be inspired to bounce back with a quickish follow up to Now Then? They do all seem to want to work with Ezrin again as soon as, but perhaps a little optimistic to see them back in the studio just yet. Otherwise it looks like business as normal with dates already appearing (see our date sheet).
This will certainly be the year in which the shake down of the long EMI break up starts to impact on the classic catalogue, and the first projects from the various new owners of the licensing rights are set see the light of day. They do not have an easy job as EMI by and large treated the overall core albums with a degree of detail which was the envy of fans of many other bands (it’s taken Led Zeppelin 15 years to catch up!).
On one side we have Universal shaping up with their Made In Japan project, a full set featuring all the recordings in correct order. On the other Warners Europe are developing a project based around the Mk 1 catalogue. Plans are also afoot for the two labels to co-ordinate so fans don’t get a glut of releases all at the same time, which makes a lot of sense (especially if you remember the unseemly scramble around the time of the reunion with everyone trying to get something on the shelves). In the meantime, certain Deep Purple CDs are being marked up as ‘restricted trade’ and unavailable, though we assume the stock will be freed up before long.
On the Jon Lord scene, the countdown to the special Albert Hall memorial show in April is on. There are plans to record and film; I think this will be enough for me but lots of DTB folk have their tickets. I am also told the heritage plaque in Leicester on Jon’s house of birth is going to happen this year, and we will give out more details nearer the time. The Jon Lord photographic book is under way and promises an interesting collection of images (many never before seen) and possibly some previously unreleased music as well through a CD in the package. A number of Jon’s music scores are also being made available online for budding orchestras (and anyone who wants to have these open while playing the CDs) during 2014, including the 2010 Concerto For Group & Orchestra.
The book scene looks to be quite busy. The Wait For The Ricochet book finally appears in January (I know, but the printers have shipped it to us this week, so they will start going out next), there’s a Gillan biography under way in Finland, a special Deep Purple photo book from the publishers of the California Jam opus, and a rather super Blackmore photo biography project from another publisher. More on all these as and when we’re allowed (I’ve had my knuckles rapped before for saying too much!).
Musically we will see Bernie Marsden‘s new blues album around March, which promises to be quite a doozy from those who have heard advance copies, never mind Coverdale’s guesting on it. The label (which is owned by Joe Bonamassa) have pushed a taster up on their Soundcloud site, which we really liked. Given label backing which he’s not really had for a long time, this could really do well for Bernie. Check it out.David Coverdale also sings on a Whitesnake cover on an upcoming Adrian Vandenberg album, and talking of DC, expect something special from the man (and another man) later this year too.Glenn Hughes is bouncing back from the BCC close down with a new project which includes Jason Bonham and a young American multi-instrumentalist called Andrew Watt. Julian Lennon guests on one track. I’m told April is the planned arrival date for the CD.
So, lots to look forward to and probably more besides; let us know if you have any news or info to share. We’d like to sneak in a thanks everyone who has been in touch or helped over the last twelve months and wish you all the best for 2104. Lots of nice comments on the site lately, I don’t usually publish these but they are appreciated.

You know how it is, book all proofed, checked and off to the printers, and then you take a second look at one of the last photographs which went in and… gulp; is Blackmore really using non-Marshall amps and speakers at an early show? Is the chapter covering his gear already needing a rewrite?
We had a low res scan of a great photo of Deep Purple at Blizen jazz festival in 1969, a very early Mk 2 shot which was quite important to the book. The photographer was asking a lot of money for us to use the image and wasn’t even sure if he wanted it in the book at all (as he was working on a book of his rock material from the sixties), so sorting it out took months. We got there in the end, the high resolution version came winging through and was swopped over, but not before several hours spent cleaning up 40 year old dust specks (as you do). Generally this sort of work is done at some stupid size enlargement on screen to make sure nobody sees the restoration when it appears at normal size in the book. It’s fiddly work but I quite enjoy it. That was until I realised the name on the amps clearly was NOT that of Marshall. I could just make out the letters Dav… This prompted a hasty round-robin to a few fans to see if anyone else could work out what was going on.My brother came back fairly quickly to say these were actually Italian speakers and amps made by Davoli, quite popular in Europe in the late sixties (as well as being collectable today; the amp has a really nice red fascia design). Others suggestions were that maybe Ritchie just had to borrow stuff as it was a multi-artist two day festival, which seemed reasonable. It was left to Tonny Steenhagen to restore sanity, by suggesting I check the old Bilzen video (which makes a change from him wearily having to point out I’ve spelt the festival name wrongly! And I must admit I’d not watched it for some years). The Davoli amps and speakers were indeed there, but as part of the back-line for another band (see snap below). The photographer had snapped Deep Purple with Blackmore near the front of the stage, so the foreshortening had made it look like they were his amps. The trusty Marshalls were there as always. Phew.
Hopefully we’ll get an actual delivery date for the book in the next few days, and can also point out that it’s been expanded in page count to incorporate extra material and photos. The publishers also have several more page previews on their site at easy on the eye books.

Amazingly the guy who did the artwork job for Deep Purple In Rock has surfaced. Colin is 93 but still going strong, and his son got in touch with me recently following a feature which appeared on the ST33 album sleeve design blog. Colin also worked on a couple of the band’s other sleeves, via his friendship with manager John Coletta. Needless to say I have emailed him some questions via his son and hope to find out more soon. In the meantime, you can read the story of the In Rock design on ST33.

is nearly over. Easy On The Eye have updated their site with news of the Wait For The Ricochet book, which has been delayed a little due to a few of technical glitches at the proofing stage. They are expecting delivery during late October (or possibly early November). The good news is that towards the end of the project the printers suggested the book could have extra pages due to the way they would be setting it up on the press, so it’s now even longer. Which means there was room after all for the story about our beloved ex-Labour PM ratting out fellow pupils for wagging off to see the band in 1970! And more photographs.
A big thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered, and who will get their copies straight off the press. DTB have just taken delivery of boxes of special packaging to make sure it arrives in pristine condition.
The book can still be pre-ordered (either via the publishers or DTB Online store).

Some bits you may have seen on the site and elsewhere, others you may have missed…
There’s a new Tommy Bolin set due late August in America, titled Whirlwind. No final details of European editions yet but these will be available through DTBOnline. There is a limited edition but seems to be for US only. Other new titles due in are vinyl of Jon Lord’s Concerto. Vinyl of the latest Blackmore’s Night album has been issued but is not being distributed by normal channels so we cannot supply it.
The Phenomena Project is assembling (sounds like something from an upcoming Marvel Comics film!) for at least one festival slot next year at Sweden Rock Festival 2014, with Glenn Hughes – Vocals, Neil Murray – Bass, and Bernie Marsden – Guitar, plus Martin Kronlund – Guitar, Perra Johansson – Drums, Ian Haugland – Drums. Dating back to 1985, this was a series of studio albums with contributions from Glenn and others, but never toured.
Still with Glenn, the Hughes / Thrall album is reissued on vinyl shortly, 180 gsm edition (pre-order at DTBOnline).
I wonder if the Jon Lord BBC show we mentioned on DTB before is this: “Keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman pays tribute to his friend, Deep Purple’s Jon Lord…” Airing at 23:25, Sunday, July 14th, BBC1 TV but in the East Midlands only (due to the Leicester connection I assume). Hopefully it will be on iPlayer after, most local programming is.
Talking of the man, it’s now confirmed that the memorial show takes place in April 2014, with lots of guests. We’ll let you know more when we can on the Jon Lord page on the site. I know some people were hoping to travel to catch this and a DP UK show in October this year as they were originally hoping to stage it in October. There is also a special book celebrating Jon’s life in words and pictures in the planning stages, about which more shortly.
All a bit quieter over in Deep Purple land, apart from Don Airey doing a freebie show in Italy in August, with a Deep Purple tribute band. Date and flyer on the site here.
On the back-catalogue, we should note that the 1999 Deep Purple Live At The Royal Albert Hall set is deleted; anyone needing the 2CD set should move quickly. A customer came to us asking if we could help and were surprised to find it had gone. We still have some in stock at DTBOnline store (or you can pay over £30 on Am*z*n!). A marvellous weekend for everyone really, and you have to think with hindsight it was one of the high spots of the reunion. It’s great that Jon got to do this when he did.
The DPO Archives are promising us an anniversary video single to mark the release forty years back of the Smoke On The Water single in America. It took EMI UK four years to finally release this here, not until the band had split did they put it out on 7″ in 1977.
Funnily enough, the radio comedy show The Castle (recently repeated on Radio 4Extra) have the riff done on medieval instruments which sounds great (along with many other famous rock hooks). Also due is a reissue of the Live In Copenhagen ’72 DVD.
The Wait For The Riochet book majoring on the Deep Purple In Rock period of the band is now in the final proofing stages and on track to go to print later this month. There will be a cut-off date for pre-orders announced shortly so if you want the copy with your credit in best get a wriggle on. If the title has passed you by, check it out on the site here.
The latest live Whitesnake album Made In Britain is now shipping, a double CD set (see DTBOnline). Apparently Whitesnake showed head and shoulder shots of Jon Lord, Mel Galley and Cozy Powell during the performance of Gambler on the recent UK tour. Until I heard this I hadn’t really thought how many of the classic line-up we’d lost.
Mention of Mel sort of leads us obliquely to Judas Priest (How? Mel, Trapeze, Glenn, Deep Purple, Roger Glover, produced Priest…. peasy). John Tucker was asking me aboiut The Flying Hat Band, who supported Purple for a few shows in Europe in January 1974. This was Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton’s outfit and we were wondering how on earth they came to be selected for the tour (given that most of Purple’s supports at that time were usually bands people had heard of – Alex Harvey Band, Tucky Buzzard, Elf, etc.). Let us know if you managed the band at the time!
Issue 6 of Swedish magazine Retroculture majors on Deep Purple. Though mostly in Swedish, interviews with Coverdale and Johnny Bolin have been included in English by editor Mike Eriksson. The only worry I have is the magazine’s website name which in English reads a bit strange, so I’ll just paste it as a link! Thanks also to the guys at Hush magazine for their latest issue, 41. 75 pages of DP and family content, along with other bands.

That comedy film Discoverdale we’ve been mentioning for some time is now getting screenings in various art cinemas around the country. Very nice of the producers to send us an invite to the London premier (though the thought of driving all that way in the recent heatwave to sit in a cinema didn’t really appeal). The flyer actually featured quite a big photo of David Coverdale. You can visit the movie’s official site to read more. Can’t wait to see it.
Finally, Chris Poustie writes : “I was in a musical instrument shop in Bangkok a couple of days ago and as I was waiting to pay my bill a song came out of the shop’s speakers which I immediately recognized as “We Wish You Well” although it was being sung in an Asian language, most probably Japanese or Korean. It was a much bigger production than the original Whitesnake version and much longer too, probably a full 3 or 4 minutes. First verse sung by a man, and the second verse sung by a woman in operatic style!” If anyone can tell Chris who this was by let us know. The track was also covered back in the day (1979) by an outfit called Company, a 7″ single which featured four members of Whitesnake on a busman’s holiday…Thanks also to Jacqueline Stokes, James Bateman, Tim Summers.

43 today! A forthcoming book which tells the story of one of rock’s greatest albums. Wherever you first came to be aware of Deep Purple, or indeed whenever, Deep Purple In Rock is the reason you were there (whether you knew it or not!). Everything came together for the group during the second half of 1969 and Wait For The Ricochet gives a narrative overview of events. From the auditioning of Gillan and Glover, the early productive rehearsals, the juggling of recording sessions and constant touring, and the amazing success which followed the release. It goes beyond that to look at the recording of the tracks, the inspiration behind them, and their legacy. Many of the key personnel have contributed, DTB have raided their archives for illustrative material, fans have provided rare ephemera and numerous photographers have licensed some great images. You may have seen some of the material before, you may have read bits of the story in the past, but this book brings it all together in context for the first time. The story runs up to the tail-end of 1970 amidst riots in Germany (and Scotland!) with the group topping the album charts abroad and achieving the sixth best selling album of the year in Britain. From Jon Lord’s mum defending her lad in the Melody Maker, to Roger Glover’s hints for dying crushed velvet trousers green. From the location of the gig where Gillan was auditioned, to the band out shopping for strobe lights. From the In Rock engineer’s matter of fact description of Ritchie recording the guitar solo for Child In Time, to Ian Gillan explaining the need for tight trousers to sing the vocals, it’s all here.

front page of the NME 1970

The book will be available through high-street book stores and indie record shops later in the year, but pre-ordering means it will arrive hot off the press many weeks early. And everyone who pre-orders before the book goes to press will have their name printed in the book’s credits to say thank-you for supporting the project. Pre-orders are best done through DTB Online store (the publishers have arranged an extra discount for DTB people).
You can read more on the site at the book section and see a couple of trial spreads. The book is illustrated throughout in full colour. Even for the b/w images!
ISBN : 978-0-9561439-6-9. The title is published by Easy On The Eye, whose first book last year got lots of acclaim across Europe for the high quality of the layout and content.

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I’d not forgotten that we have rolled around to an important anniversary, honest. Just shocked to realise we’d got the date wrong for all these years…! Seriously. It’s not so easy to find something new to say, particularly as I’ve been raving about this album for fifty years now myself. Many of us have […]

This photo has been floating about on the web for some time, but thanks to Mike Richards we can locate this to Newcastle City Hall on the 1980 Down To Earth tour. This is mainly because he spotted a mate in the balcony in the pic he went to school with! It was taken by […]

Our I Spy Car spotter days are behind us here at DTB so it’s taken us a while to catch up with this Nissan, badged the Highway Star. It was launched back in 1997 but wasn’t sold in the UK, except as an grey import (wikipedia says imports were “mainly driven by car enthusiasts, or […]

I assume we’re not the only ones to have used some of the current lockdown to do a bit of tidying. Simon tells us he found three dust masks in his shed while he was having a good sort out over Easter, the first time he’s been able to tackle this for over a year, […]

Derek Lawrence, Deep Purple’s first producer, deal maker, guiding light and without whom… died last week, May 13th 2020. It’s taken me a few days to get to grips with the news and put a few words together for this site. It is sometimes easy to overlook Mk 1’s contributions to the band’s catalogue but […]

This Is Rock magazine in Spain have kicked off the In Rock 50th anniversary with a cover feature in their latest issue, although inside it is just a single page looking back. Nice for cover collectors though. My thanks to Hugh Gilmour for the news, even if it is starting to make some of us […]

So exactly why should we be marking the passing of Little Richard here? Well, Deep Purple In Rock would not have been the same without Richard’s trail blazing contributions to rock’n roll for starters. Speed King in particular owes even more, with Ian Gillan quoting lyrics from Little Richard classics throughout (to brilliant effect). Deep […]

Tonight would have been Deep Purple’s live debut in Japan, the first of two shows in Osaka in May 1972. Tickets available at 1400 Yen to 2300 Yen (or 3300 Yen for a box seat). BUT the three shows were cancelled some time before due to a backlog in America where the band were trying […]

Ian Paice has joined the long list of musicians who have taken a leaf out of the younger generation’s book and begun putting material up on the web to entertain everyone, is promising more broadcasts to come. He was always entertaining on shows like Super Drumming and The Ian Paice Drum Tribe (has he been […]

This tickled us seen by Simon in a dusty shop window over in Bridlington a couple of years ago. It’s probably still there (the shop is just by the walk way at the top of the harbour). A set of strange ‘Dad’ mugs with various faux adverts on the side and themed handles. So this […]